Ivan Kuznetsov

Name: Ivan Kuznetsov

Gender: Male

Age: 18

Grade: 12

School: Bayview Secondary School

Hobbies and Interests: Tennis, chess, raising rabbits, Astronomy

Appearance: Ivan stands at 5'5" and weighs in at 166 pounds. This height to weight ratio translates to a stocky and physically powerful build. His arms are a bit longer than normal proportionately, reaching down to about an inch and a half closer to his knees than normal. His legs have been toned considerably from running sprints and tennis practice, and most of muscular weight contribution comes from his legs. His torso appears rather heavily built in the pectoral region, but no so much with his abs. Despite the fact that he is somewhat ambidextrous and writes with his right hand, Ivan plays tennis primarily with his left; this is visible as his left arm is much more developed than his right.

The bleach-blond hair on the top of Ivan's head grows at a slow rate and he cuts it frequently. On average, it's about three quarters of an inch long. Whenever it grows past a half inch, it curls slightly. Ivan frequently forgets to shave, so stubble can often be found on his upper neck, underneath his chin and along his jawline. The jawline itself is square, giving Ivan a rather confident and powerful appearance. To complement this, Ivan's eyes are ice-blue. Even when he's content, Ivan's eyes tend to give him a 'cold' look.

Ivan doesn't care a lot about what he wears and fluctuates in style. His only constant staples to his wardrobe are shorts, glasses and tennis shoes; he wears both of these even in winter, while he could be wearing a T-shirt or sleeveless shirt in summer or a hooded sweatshirt in winter. Ivan has two pairs of glasses (he's near-sighted with 20/40 vision): a regular pair, and a prescription set of sunglasses with green-tinted lenses. He carries both on his person and dons the green ones whenever allowed, except when playing tennis.

Biography: Ivan was born an American citizen, the oldest son of Russian immigrant Mischa Kuznetsov and Spanish-born immigrant and guitarist Ricardo Gutierrez. Mischa had come to America to play professional tennis and found an unlikely relationship prospect in Ricardo, who played in a small band at several local clubs. Mischa left the professional circuit almost as quickly as she had joined it upon her pregnancy with Ivan. The couple stayed together for almost another year and a half, finally ending shortly after Mischa became pregnant with their second son, Louis. Ricardo was seeking national music tours while Mischa wished to live a highly localized life. The two never married. Ricardo did call to stay in touch with Mischa (the two are still on good terms), and even sent child support.

Mischa moved in with her sister Vera (who moved to America at the same time as Mischa) following Ricardo's departure. Vera worked as a stay-at-home accountant for a law firm, getting enough of a cash flow to support both her sister and her sister's child (children once Louis was born). When Ivan was 2 and Louis was six months old, Mischa accepted an offer to instruct tennis at a country club to repay Vera's generosity and hospitality while Vera watched the children. As a result, Ivan and Louis grew up around their aunt more than their own mother, seeing Vera as practically a 'second mother'.

Ivan's first love was tennis, just like his mother. When Vera was particularly busy just keeping up the books and watching Louis, Mischa would bring her oldest son to work. He quickly became enamoured with the game and would hit a ball back and forth with his mother before and after lessons. The older he got, the better he got, and Ivan would begin to show up with his mother every day after school, sometimes even serving as a 'sparring partner' of sorts against a few of Mischa's students. Tennis helped to build up his sprinting speed, and his long arms could handle a racket well enough to compensate for his otherwise unfitting-to-the-game physique.

Tennis would always be his greatest interest, but Ivan was enthusiastic about school as well. He took a specific shining to astronomy early on, focusing on stars and constellation charts. Though astronomy eventually secured a backseat position to tennis, Ivan would still spend most nights recording the position of stars and searching for constellations. When Louis was old enough, Ivan and Louis would even lay on the ground outside and try to make up new pictures from the stars. The walls of Ivan's room are still decorated with, among the tennis posters, drawings that he and his brother made from star patterns. Ivan's activities with his brother inadvertently affected his socialization skills; he was able to closely interact with and bond with one person at a time (such as his brother, who he became fiercely protective of). In large crowds, however, Ivan quickly became antisocial and sought any way out of the situation.

The year before Ivan entered high school, Mischa lost her job when the country club closed. Vera could do her job from anywhere as it was through a computer, so Vera and Mischa decided to move to find new work. After several calls and several misses, Mischa finally found work as a coach for a family camp's tennis program, prompting the move to the Bayview area. Louis was still in primary school while Ivan started his life in Bayview as a freshmen. At Bayview Secondary, Ivan tended to mix into the background. Because he was the 'new kid', he had no pre-existing connections and couldn't bring himself to socialize with other kids. This isn't to say he didn't LIKE people, he admired many of his classmates from a distance. He went so far as to take a shining to a few of the girls, but worried himself sick thinking about how to approach them that he never developed those crushes into relationships.

Realizing that he was being as inconspicuous as possible out of shyness, Ivan used his skill in tennis to make a name for himself on the courts in hopes that his classmates might acknowledge him and approach him first. Whenever he was approached, however, he'd quickly withdraw with some excuse (needing to hit the showers, the coach wanted to meet him somewhere, etc.) and continue his habits of trying to get from class to class with as little interaction as possible. Apart from tennis, Ivan found that the game of chess also served as a method to make himself known while not directly talking to anybody. Like tennis, the game was one-on-one, and Ivan found solace in the fact he never even had to talk to his opponent aside from the words 'check' and 'checkmate'. The same compulsive, over-thinking nature that hindered his ability to talk to friends or ask girls out aided him in planning several moves ahead. Despite his best efforts through chess and tennis, however, Ivan still found himself without company outside of his brother.

To compensate for his lack of socialization, Ivan developed one final hobby, even if by chance: raising rabbits. During the first few months of living in the area, Ivan and Louis were exploring the town before happening upon a pet shop. Louis desperately wanted a rabbit and, after some discussion with Vera (who handled most of the 'child matters'), Ivan and Louis joint-purchased a pair of New Zealand Dwarf rabbits. They thought the rabbits they had bought and hutched together in a spare room of the house were both females, but nature corrected them rather harshly within months. Louis eventually grew bored with pets, but Ivan took it upon himself to look after the litter and sell them to local kids once they were old enough. Realizing that he actually made a profit from this, Ivan took care of and bred rabbits whenever he wasn't playing tennis or stargazing with his brother.

Advantages: Ivan is rather physically fit thanks to his avid tennis playing. His powerful legs enable him to sprint for a short time at excellent speeds. Even moreso, his lung capacity and endurance are toned enough for him to run normally for a short period before sprinting again as opposed to slowing down to a crawl between his bursts of speed. He is ambidextrous and can perform coordinated tasks with either hand. His left arm (the dominant one) can deal terrific pain to anybody unfortunate enough to cross Ivan, a feat that his withdrawn personality makes difficult to achieve.

Disadvantages: Though capable of using his right arm properly enough, it doesn't pack anywhere near the punch that its left counterpart can. Otherwise physically sound, Ivan has a few drawbacks hidden in his personality. Ivan has a tendency to 'overthink' a situation due to his planning nature, often missing important yet basic details that others would spot immediately. In addition to this, he comes across to others as cold, uncaring and unfeeling. Even if he isn't truly these things, it's the impression that matters, and Ivan often finds himself on the outside of the social circle. Given the nature of the island, Ivan has one final and potentially fatal flaw; because he gets lonely easily, Ivan prefers to form one intensely close bond in a given environment. This bond is usually with his brother, but if Louis is not present, the normally lone-wolf Ivan almost invariably attempts to connect with one other person. If somebody he bonds with is in danger, Ivan becomes extremely irrational and does everything he can to save that person, even if it puts himself in a near-suicidal situation.

Designated Number: Male student no. 82

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Designated Weapon: Umbrella

Conclusion: This could get interesting with B082. He has the skill set to be a true contender, however his weapon leaves something to be desired since no one likes an umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh.

'The above biography is as written by MK Kilmarnock. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: MK Kilmarnock

Kills: Keith Christoph, Imraan Al-Hariq, Aaron Hughes

Killed By: Ilario Fiametta III

Collected Weapons: Umbrella (assigned weapon), branch (picked from the ground), Pancor Jackhammer (BKA, Day 1)

Allies: Tabi Gweneth, Maria Graham

Enemies: Etain Brennan, Clio Gabriella, Keith Christoph, Nick Reid, Imraan Al-Hariq, Aaron Hughes, Kimberly Nguyen, Ilario Fiametta III

Mid-game Evaluation:

Post-Game Evaluation:

Memorable Quotes:
 * “There are no heroes on this island. Not anymore.”

Other/Trivia

 * Ivan was the winner of the first "Best Kill Award" in V4.

Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Ivan, in chronological order.

The Past:
 * You're lucky you're my brother!

Pre-Game:
 * Life is a Game
 * Chain-link fence, open sky
 * Nature vs Nurture
 * Captain's orders
 * Gotta Make the Grade
 * Decisions, Decisions

V4:
 * A Solitude That Asks Nothing In Return
 * Haven't You Got Eyes in Your Head?
 * Peacemaker
 * Pride and Glory
 * Keep Yourself Alive
 * Meet Again
 * The Sound of Silence
 * Still in the Dark
 * White Sparrows
 * Maria Graham's Series of Unfortunate Events
 * Feel a Fear
 * Panic Attack
 * Awe of She
 * The Mighty Sparrow
 * Everybody Loses (V4 Endgame)

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Ivan Kuznetsov. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''
 * I liked Ivan a lot. I've already touched on some stuff relating to him while discussing Tabi, so I'll try to avoid too much redundancy. One thing that Ivan had going for him more than she did was that he was more established in pregame. Everyone had a pretty good idea who Ivan was going in, and he stayed true to that, with any characterization coming as growth from that starting point. Unlike many other kids, Ivan was established as something of a loner from the start, so his lack of tons of connections wasn't a deal-breaker. Ivan also had an established soft side, from his flashback with his brother, which made his willingness to reconsider Tabi make a lot of sense.

Despite his assertion that V4 had no heroes, Ivan made a pretty solid protagonist. He was seriously flawed, but in a way that made him relatable and believable. Ivan could come off as short on patience and as having a bit of a temper, both things that sometimes got him into trouble. He was a great character to see interact with others because, while he wasn't necessarily a huge driving force socially, he wasn't the sort to go in for boring or usual stuff either. Ivan would always change a scene's dynamic, which made him a welcome member of any thread.

This is part of what makes it a shame that Ivan and Tabi didn't get to do more interacting with the island as a whole. They stayed largely to private threads, often mostly interacting with each other, and while that was pretty good, where they really came into their own most was when dealing with outsiders and really tense situations.

Ivan also had some very nice action scenes, which is a thing I don't feel like he gets enough credit for. It wasn't a defining point of his story or anything (like for, say, the winners of V1, V2, and V3), but it was still cool to see. Ivan's fights were smooth and violent without veering too far into excess; gore was shocking but reasonable and Ricky was always good at working in discretion shots where required. This is one of the reasons I'm really glad Ivan made it to Endgame; he added a very nice action climax to it all.

I also really appreciated that Ricky was willing to let Ivan change, even if doing so meant he lost a bit of his moral high ground. Characters have decided to play all-out come Endgame for a long time, but Ivan was one of the few whose narrative really acknowledged that wasn't normal/just anther step for a hero. Ivan was wonderfully self aware in the ways that are important.

Ivan was, I think, an evolution and modernization of the SOTF protagonist, and one of V4's iconic characters. He had a good run, and is a character I'll look back on fondly. He's one I highly recommend giving a look, because there's some really quality stuff there. - MurderWeasel